While Albert Pujols has announced he will retire at the end of the season, it appears he will be added to the National League All-Star roster under a new provision.
“This is it for me,” Pujols said back in March. “This is my last run.”
For over two decades, Jayson Stark from The Athletic has advocated for “Living Legends” to be honored at the All-Star Game. As of now, under the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, many baseball greats will eventually receive the credits they deserve.
The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal said that a new clause in the CBA had allowed commissioner Rob Manfred to choose one additional player for each roster.
“In addition to the 32 players elected and selected to the All-Star Game, the Commissioner may choose to add one player that he selects to each league’s roster, in recognition of each player’s career achievements,” Rosenthal said. “If special circumstances warrant, the Commissioner may select more than one player to each league’s roster.”
Rosenthal also said, “if commissioner Rob Manfred chose Pujols, he likely would want to add a future Hall of Famer to the AL roster as well, ensuring the teams competed with the same number of players”.
Pujols played for the Los Angeles Angels from 2012 until May 13, 2021, when the team released him. He later joined the Los Angeles Dodgers and played in 85 games, batting .254 with 12 home runs and a .759 OPS, going for 5-for-16 in the postseason.
He accepted a one-year, $2.5 million deal to return to the St. Louis Cardinals for the 2022 campaign. He started his Hall of Fame career in St. Louis in 2001, earning himself nine All-Star selections, three MVP awards, six Silver Sluggers, two Gold Gloves, one batting title, and two World Series titles.
Another All-Star candidate
Rosenthal also said that Miguel Cabrera, 39, would be another candidate. He joined Pujols this season as one of seven players with 3,000 hits and 500 home runs. Just like Pujols, he may retire at the end of the season.
Pujols last appeared in the game in 2015, when he was an elected starter, while Cabrera last appeared in 2016 as a reserve. Both are 10-time All-Star and 11-time All-Star, respectively. Previously, older legends could only make an appearance in an All-Star Game if they made their respective league’s 32-man roster.
Earlier in June, Cabrera was asked by reporters regarding him being selected to play in the 2022 MLB All-Star game. At first, he considered it was just “for the young guys and for the new people”. He quickly changed his mind upon realizing that it would be held in Los Angeles and that the Tigers would open up the second half of their season against the Oakland Athletics.
“That’s the good thing,” Cabrera said. “If I make it, I would stay out there and not have to fly back and forth. I don’t know. It’s going to be tough. It’d be a good thing for my kids. They were too young before, but they’ve got memories.”